Ciompi Revolt
The Ciompi Revolt was a rebellion among unrepresented labourers which occurred in the Republic of Florence in Tuscany, Italy, from 1378 to 1382. Those who revolted consisted of artisans, labourers, and craftsmen who did not belong to any guilds and were therefore unable to participate in the Florentine government. These labourers had grown increasingly resentful over the established patrician oligarchy. In addition, they were expected to pay heavy taxes which they could not afford, forcing some to abandon their homes. The resulting insurrection over such tensions led to the creation of a government composed of wool workers and other disenfranchised workers which lasted for three and a half years.
The Ciompi Revolt developed in three stages: reform in May and June, the violent "revolution" of the revolt and fighting in mid-July, and the fall of the Ciompi government – the "reaction", at the end of August 1378. These workers' underrepresentation led to their exploitation, low wages, and political impotence. In June 1378 the city's fourteen minor guilds demanded greater representation in civic office from elites – the Signoria. These guildsmen still wanted to keep the Sotto posti, who were low wage textile workers with no guild representation, from forming their own guilds and being able to gain increased political power. To prevent this, the Signoria quadrupled the fee for admittance to the system. This action sparked indignation and turned the Sotto posti into opponents of the Signoria, aligning them with the lower class Ciompi. On 22 June the Ciompi took up arms for the first time but it was not until 21 July that they violently took over the city's government and forced the Signoria to create three new guilds and grant them political office.
Historians commonly highlight a few individuals as central to the events. Representing the middle and upper class was Salvestro de' Medici. Representing the lower class was the mysterious group known as "The Eight ". Finally caught in the middle of these two groups is Michele di Lando. He was "separated from his social superior due to inferior birth, but he was also separated from his peers by his superior vision".
Although the Ciompi Revolt was brief, it left an impact on future generations. The three-and-a-half-year revolt not only affected Florentine society throughout the 15th century, but was a flashpoint in Florentine history, which continued to intrigue historians. Interpretations of the events evolved across the centuries.
Background
Unstable government
In the years preceding the 1378 revolt, certain aspects of Florentine society set the stage for the uprising. Tensions within the oligarchy were already present decades before the revolt occurred. The Arti Minori, or minor guilds, were constantly in contention with the Arti Maggiori, or the seven major guilds. Between the years of 1339 to 1349, wealthy houses went bankrupt and markets were reduced. The economy never peaked nor declined sharply again, aside from minor political and military disputes familiar to Florence. Economic grievances had drawn artisans and wage-labourers into Florentine politics from the mid-fourteenth century. These workers, however, were forbidden from associating by city government. The oligarchy was unstable, as many either died from the plague or fled to safer territories. From these turbulent times emerged the gente nuova a class of mainly immigrants with no aristocratic background who grew their wealth from trade. Together, the gente nuova and Arti Minori bonded over their dislike of the oligarchy. Each side sought to gain control over the other, as the oligarchy used the Guelph Party to justify their patriciate status, while the gente nuova appealed to the middle and lower classes for support. In 1375 the gente nuova seriously challenged the privileges of the oligarchy, sparking concerns from the latter of their possible collapse. In addition, war broke out against the papacy in the same year, increasing the costly burdens on the city. In late 1377 to early 1378, the oligarchy and the gente nuova formed a truce, only to be broken by the oligarchy in June, the month of the revolt.Upper class versus lower class and the origins of the term ''ciompi''
Tensions between the upper and lower classes were a major factor in bringing about the revolt. It is unclear who exactly qualified as belonging to the Florentine upper class, unlike in Venice, where the class hierarchy was solidly entrenched. For the most part of the 14th century, a patriciate could be identified by the presence of a family name. On the other side of the spectrum were the popolo minuto, or the labouring classes of Florence, which also had no set boundaries. For example, an artisan could be considered elite if he was wealthy and successful. The majority of the popolo minuto, however, consisted of poor labourers flocking from villages to the city for work. Forced loans, high taxes and an even higher incidence of indebtedness kept the ciompi impoverished. In 1355, the miserabiles, defined as having no property, whose possessions were worth less than 100 lire and had no trade or profession, accounted for 22% of households in Florence. The most important aspect of this class is that they had no representation in the Florentine government, which would be one of the main changes implemented by the ciompi later on. These artisans and labourers were not part of guilds until the ciompi and the Arti Minori took over the government beginning in 1378. In becoming the ciompi, the word derives from the florentine word for ‘cardare la lana’ or ‘ciompare’ as the wool workers were the most representative and numerous group of people involved in the revolt although it included also other groups. Records of condemned ciompi rebels show, in fact, that tavern owners were also found to be part of the revolt.Rising taxes
In Florence in 1371, unequal taxation was the norm; in particular, the highlanders paid three times more in taxes than plain dwellers. This increase in taxation was not due to Florence's wars with Pisa from 1362–1364, or to the revolt of San Miniato from 1369–1370, but from the need to pay for increased military forces to push back against the Ubaldini and their allies. The Ubaldini were a feudal family who had strong influences over the peasants living in the Alpi Fiorentine, and Florence wished to break these ties for control in the north. Adding to the need for more military forces was the increased crime and attacks directed at merchants and at pilgrims passing through Florence that developed after the Black Death. To pay these militias, however, Florence was getting deeper in debt, and the oligarchy burdened those living in the countryside with increasing taxation. As taxes kept on increasing, the highlanders chose to flee, worsening a labour shortage, already present after the Black Death. Furthermore, there were increasing differences in wealth between the popolo minuto and the patriciates. In fact, before the ciompi, there were already rebellions organized by labourers, such as the 9 October 1343 revolt by wool workers led by the Sienese Aldobrando di Ciecharino, who lived in Florence.Revolt
The Revolt of the Ciompi was a popular revolt in Florence in 1378 spearheaded by wool carders known as Ciompi and other non-guilded workers who rose up to demand a voice in the commune's ordering in addition to enacting debt and tax reforms.The revolt was an outburst of proletarian unrest in the city of Florence that began in June 1378 and consisted of three phases ending in August of the same year. It was the result of a power struggle between Florence's ruling elites, the established artisan guilds of Florence, and Sotto posti which included the Ciompi; mainly a group of low-wage textile workers employed in Florence's thriving wool industry. At its height, this trade sold fabrics throughout Italy as well as overseas and employed up to a third of Florence's population. Many of the issues leading to the revolt of the Ciompi involved the politics and relations between guild and non-guild members, as well as the ruling elites of the city. Guild members and the guild system were important aspects of Florence's politics by 1378, where they acted as political intermediaries between the individuals in their guild and the state. Guilds enforced industrial, fiscal, and monetary policy which benefited their trades and the lives of their workers in addition to representing them politically, regulating their industries, and controlling who could become a member. As mentioned previously the guild system involved a hierarchy between the seven major and fourteen minor guild associations; the former represented those who had become a class of prosperous cloth merchants and bankers/financiers, and the latter consisting of various artisans, craftsmen and skilled labourers including, but not limited to, shoemakers, tailors and wine merchants.
File:Arte Lana Della Robbia OPA Florence.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Coat of arms of the Arte della Lana, Andrea della Robbia, 1487, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in Florence
The 21 guilds, however, did not include the whole of Florence's working population and many people were excluded from the system, thus limiting their protection from exploitation and ability to be involved in city politics. Few of those in the textile industry, including the Ciompi wool workers, were eligible for guild membership, with around only 200 of the approximately 14,000 people in wool manufacture qualifying, and the remainder named the Sotto posti who were designated ineligible for entry to the guild system or for creating a guild for their own benefit. The exclusion of the Ciompi from this system reinforced unequal power relations within the city, reducing the rights and protections available for these workers unlike those assigned to members in other guilds. It was a highly unequal society allowing Florence's wool trade to thrive and set the stage for the revolt.
The Ciompi resented the controlling power that was centred in the Arte della Lana—the textile-manufacturing establishment which guided the economic engine of Florence's prosperity—and was supported by the other major guilds as well as the limitations they faced in influencing politics, and the lower wages and exploitation they experienced as a result of their exclusion from the guild system. The consequent revolt of 1378 marked the high point of labour agitation in Florence.